Sounds from underneath the stairs
by Frances Desmarais
Summary: So Berwald and Tino heard sounds from underneath the stairs.


"Berwald, did you hear that?" Tino asked, putting down his book.

"What?" the Swedish man said, looking around. "What is it?"

"There's this sound... it sounded like something or someone was crying..." Tino scrunched up his brows and said. The two were in their cozy little house, enjoying each others' company. Tino was reading his book when he heard that sound, and it sounded like it came from the cupboard underneath the stairs. It was faint, but Tino could still hear it. "Didn't you hear that?" Tino asked again. "It sounded like it came from the cupboard."

"Which cupboard? And what noise? I didn't hear anything." Berwald answered.

"But I did hear something. Odd..."

Then, there it was again. The sound of something or someone crying, it sounded like it was in pain or something. It was creepy.

Berwald and Tino both froze on their seats, and they slowly turned and looked at each other with pale faces.

"Hear that?" The Finnish man whispered, voice shaking from fear.

"Yes, I did." Berwald nodded and looked at the direction of the cupboard.

"D-Do you think that... maybe it's a g-ghost?" Tino said, getting up from his seat and went to Berwald, hugging the Swede's arm. "Berwald, I'm scared."

"Don't be silly. I don't think it's a g-ghost... and our house is not haunted." he replied, faking a calm voice. Berwald himself too was afraid, but he couldn't show that to his beloved wife.

"What if it is and... we just didn't know." Tino trembled, nails digging into Berwald's arm.

"Nonsense... let's go check it out." Berwald said, standing up slowly, but Tino grabbed his arm and pulled him back down to the chair.

"No. What if it is a ghost and... I don't want you to get hurt." Tino muttered, clinging to his husband.

Berwald smiled and patted his head. "Don't worry. I won't. I'm a viking, remember?"

Tino faked a smile at that and slowly released his arm. He looked at the cupboard and the voice appeared again.

"Maybe it's not such a good idea. Maybe we should just leave it alone, we'll call Arthur, he knows about these kind of things..."

"No, we'll handle this ourselves alright. Don't worry, we'll be fine." Berwald comforted, slowly walking to the cupboard beneath the stairs, careful not to make any sounds to let the thing know his presence. He passed a small table with a lamp on it and took it, thinking maybe he would need it in his process of finding out.

Back at the living room, Tino was holding his breath. He was afraid. He was afraid of his Berwald getting hurt and what if it really is a ghost?

Berwald got near to the door of the cupboard and he grabbed the handle. Slowly, he twisted it and slammed open the door.

"Show yourself!" he cried, pointing the lamp at the direction of the cupboard.

There was a scream and without knowing what happened, Tino screamed too. Afraid that it might be Berwald, he rushed to him and saw his husband pointing a lamp to no other than Iceland.

"Iceland, what the hell?" Berwald asked, slowly putting the lamp down. "What are you doing in our cupboard?"

Iceland gave them a weak smile and clutched his tummy. Wrappers of candies and chocolates scattered all around him. "Hello." Iceland greeted weakly. "I guess I've been found out."

"What are you doing here, does Norway know that you're here?" Tino asked, offering his hand to Iceland to help him get out of the cupboard. "How long have you been in here?"

"A while." Iceland muttered and winced as he felt pain in his tummy.

"Why?" Berwald asked.

"Because I was mad at Norway and Denmark." he replied, looking down on the ground.  
"And you come to our house because of that?"

"Yes. I don't want to see their stinky faces." Iceland pouted, crossing his arms across his chest.  
"You're being really mature here Iceland." Tino said sarcastically. "Come on now, what did they do to make you so mad that you have to come and live under out stairs like Harry Potter."

"Well they went on a dinner without me."

"That's it?" Berwald said, frowning.

"Yeah. They went to a fancy restaurant, without me. The nerves of them. I was left all alone in the house with nothing to eat and they went to a fancy expensive restaurant to eat (some expensive Norwegian dish or whatever expensive food) So I got mad and I stole all of Denmark's secret stash and hide in your house. And I've ate too much and now I have a tummyache." Iceland explained.

Berwald was facepalming so hard right now that his hand almost went through his face and Tino could only shook his head in disbelief.  
"That's really childish of you Iceland. You should go back and apologise now, they could be looking for you right..."

Before he could finish, the door was slammed open and Norway barged into the house with Denmark close behind. "Has anyone seen... oh, there you are!" Norway ran to Iceland's side when he saw him and hugged him tightly. "Do you know how worry I was when I didn't see you in your bed sleeping? What's wrong with you? Why did you run away?"

"You know why." Iceland struggled to break free from Norway's grip and crossed his arms. "You left me to starve at home that's why."

"I.. we... we didn't... Denmark, say something." Norway turned to Denmark for help.

"My gosh, you stole all of my secret stash gosh Iceland you naughty boy." Denmark ignored Norway and went to pick up the wrappers of his favorite candies. "These are my favorite Iceland, how could you?"

"Don't you run away from me again, alright? I was so worried." Norway said, looking into Iceland's eyes. "Promise me you won't run away again, ok?"

"I promise." Iceland muttered, looking away from Norway's eyes. In a distance, Berwald and Tino smiled to themselves watching the scene before them.

"Ice, you have to give me back my candies and chocolates!" Denmark cried.


End file.
